I believe each of us has a reason for being here on planet Earth, and it’s not to just take up space, and it’s not to just survive or have fun until old age. The reason I’m here is to help people experience fuller life. To experience fuller life, we need to get to a deeper conversation and a deeper experience of life. The deeper we go in our conversations and experiences, the more we will find rich meaning in life.
I suspect this all sounds very woowoo and vague, so let me explain what I’m talking about. Let’s start with the levels:
- Environment
- Behavior
- Capabilities
- Values and beliefs
- Identity and Purpose
- Connection
- Spirituality
Most casual conversations are at levels 1 & 2. It’s all about who won the game, the weather, and who said what to whom. This is pretty shallow stuff. If you want to keep people at a distance, make sure you stay at these levels.
In the workplace, we may move to level 3 where we talk about skills. Certainly a good workplace will talk about skills and develop their employees.
It starts getting interesting when we move to levels 4 and beyond. Level 4 is about what we deem as important. It can also get a little scary having a conversation at this level. Many people say that we should avoid conversations about politics or religion, and we’re afraid we’ll offend someone.
However, there is a safe and good way to have a conversation at level 4. It’s easy to hear when we share what we value without making other values wrong. I can say that I value freedom, creativity, connection, and a work ethic, and this usually doesn’t offend anyone. It works as long as we stay away from personal attacks, name calling, and judgments of other’s values.
The really interesting levels are levels 5 through 7. We can start exploring and sharing our identity, our sense of connectedness, and our spirituality. Then we can start sharing things of a much deeper and more meaningful nature. Instead of talking about the weather, we can talk about why we are here, and how we can help each other fulfill our life purpose.
We can have a conversation about how we’re all on planet Earth, and we all need to arrive into the future together. At the connection level (level 6), we realize that our purpose is bigger than we are and that we aren’t here just for our own fulfillment.
At level 7, we get to connect our purpose to a deeper spiritual level. Our purpose becomes a calling from God, and we derive direction and meaning in life from a creator. We become more aware of our interactions with God as we develop a relationship with Him.
When we start experiencing life at levels 5 through 7, life stops being a list of compartmentalized, unrelated activities, and it starts flowing as a unified whole.
The reason I am here is that in my life I have found convergence. My relationship to my creator, my relationship to humanity, my purpose, my values, my skills, and my activities, all pretty much line up. And I want this for you too. Let’s have a deeper conversation.
